1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for retaining a cartridge for extracting a nucleic acid to be equipped in a nucleic acid extracting apparatus which automatically extracts a nucleic acid from a sample solution containing the nucleic acid.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, an automatic nucleic acid extracting system automatically extracting DNA and RNA is being proposed for post-genome researches (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-328730).
FIG. 4 is an illustration showing the outline of an automatic nucleic acid extracting system.
The automatic nucleic acid extracting system 100 has a cartridge holder 103 retaining plural cartridges 104 in an aligned state, a pressure nozzle 101 for feeding pressurized air to the cartridges 104, and a moving head 102 retaining the pressure nozzle 101 and being capable of moving in the aligned direction of the cartridges 104. Further, in the automatic nucleic acid extracting system 100, recovering containers 106, which recovers the recovering solution discharged from the cartridges 104 in a recovering step of recovering a nucleic acid that has been once adsorbed on an adsorbing medium provided in the cartridges 104 through a recovering solution and a rack 105 retaining the recovering containers 106 are provided.
In such an automatic nucleic acid extracting system 100, after injecting a sample solution containing a nucleic acid or a solution such as a rinsing solution and a recovering solution, into the cartridge 104 from an injecting nozzle, the pressure nozzle 101 is pressed onto an open end of the cartridge 104 to feed pressurized air to the interior of the cartridge 104 from the pressure nozzle 101, whereby the solution is passed through the adsorbing medium and discharged from the cartridge 104 to the recovering container 106 or a waste liquor container, which is not shown in the drawing.